Like I said, everyone on the team had a story – high draft picks, injuries, surgeries, releases, comebacks… But there was one guy on the team in particular whose baseball career has truly historical significance – Adam Greenberg.
Adam is from New England. He played college baseball at the University of North Carolina. By the time was 24 years-old, in 2005, he was in the Major Leagues playing for the Chicago Cubs. In his first Major League at-bat, on the first pitch of the at-bat, Adam was hit in the head with a fastball. He suffered a concussion and the effects of positional vertigo for almost two years following the hit-by-pitch. He has never returned to the Major Leagues making him the only person in the history of baseball to have had the very specific experience of being hit in his first, and only, plate appearance. His story has been well documented, particularly recently, so it may be easier to just show you some of the things that have been going on for him. Here is an ESPN “Outside the Lines” about Adam….
A documentary filmmaker named Matt Liston, who Adam had never met before, started a campaign to get Adam his at-bat in the Major Leagues.
And yesterday the Miami Marlins announced they will sign Adam to a 1 day contract He will finally get his Major League at-bat. He will play next Tuesday, October, 2nd, against the New York Mets, 7 years after he was hit by the pitch in the city where it originally happened. Here is video of Adam and Matt getting the news on the Today Show yesterday.
I met Adam the night he arrived in Jupiter a few weeks ago. I had seen his name on the roster and had heard his story, but I had not seen any of the videos above and did not know there was a campaign to get him back to the Major Leagues.
I went to dinner that night with him and his wife and a few other guys on the team. Adam had an 8 o’clock interview on ESPN radio. But by 8, we were lost, still looking for the restaurant, and he ended up doing the interview while making u-turns in the dark with 5 of us huddled in the back seat trying to keep quiet. It was just the beginning of a crazy week for Adam. There were cameras on him the whole time. I was his throwing partner each day, so as we played catch to warm up I had to try and weave the ball over or around or through the maze of cameramen surrounding him. He has handled it all so well – the hit-by-pitch, the comeback, the media. And now he is getting his at-bat.
Tuesday, October 2, Miami Marlins vs. the New York Mets, Adam Greenberg, representative of Team Israel, and of himself, is going [back] to the Bigs.
Congrats, Adam. No one deserves it more…
Adam Greenberg/Team Israel
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